Archive News Mar 22, 2001 - update 2

For anyone that's interested, photos taken at the so-called 'St. Patrick's Day Jam', featuring former FLOODGATE / EXHORDER vocalist Kyle Thomas, CROWBAR / DOWN guitarist Kirk Windstein, and ex-CROWBAR drummer Craig Nunenmacher, which took place at Pat's Pub in Fat City, Lousiana on Saturday, March 17th, have been posted at this location.

H2O's brand new studio album, entitled GO, will be released in the US on May 15th, with the international release dates to follow shortly thereafter. The CD will include all the new tracks (i.e. 'Out Of Debt', 'Well Behaved', etc.) that the band have been performing live on their last few tours, along with a bonus/hidden track—a cover of MADONNA's 'Like A Prayer'. H2O are currently finalizing three weeks of shows to coincide with the record's release, including a show at New York's Irving Plaza on May 18th. Support for these shows will come from COOTER and MIDTOWN, with more acts to be added.

New York's PIST.ON want to make it clear that the group's alleged Dutch live dates that have been announced through various press sources are still to be confirmed, and will be officially announced as soon as they've been finalized.

VISION OF DISORDER's forthcoming From Bliss To Devastation CD, now scheduled for a June 26th release through TVT Records, will tentatively include the following tracks (among others):

...

01. On The Table

02. From Bliss To Devastation

03. Without You

04. Downtime Misery

05. Itchin' To Bleed

06. Regurgitate

07. Walkin' The Line

08. Pretty Hate

09. Overrun

10. Sunshine

11. Done In

...

From Bliss To Devastation was produced by Machine at the Machine Shop in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Sweden's KATATONIA will be at the Sound Pollution record store in Gamla Stan, Stockholm, Sweden on Monday March 26 at 5:00 PM for a signing session. The first 30 people buying the group's new album, Last Fair Deal Gone Down, will get the Teargas EP for free.

Swedish black metallers MISTELTEIN, described as 'in the same vein as DIMMU BORGIR and CRADLE OF FILTH, yet original', are currently at the Berno Studio in Sweden recording their second full-length album, Completion. A summer release is expected.

SOILWORK keyboardist Carlos Del Olmo has decided to leave the band due to his dislike for the touring life. In a statement posted on the group's official web site, Carlos says that 'I've had many thoughts about the touring life, and I found out that I'm not the touring kind of guy. And to keep playing keyboards in SOILWORK isn't worth much if you don't like the touring life, and with not being the main composer or anything... But I'm still going to be a die-hard SOILWORKer (I personally think SOILWORK is the best metal band around),and as they are my best friends, not very much will change, except that I [won't] play in the band. I'm still going to be active on the [web site] forum, keep all those news about SOILWORK posted as soon as there is some, and I'm going to (hopefully) continue doing the artwork for them. So I won't say: Thanx for your time everyone, though I'm still going to be here...so I'll just say, as 'Featherfall' would put it... Traaaash On!!! All the best, Carlos'

Finland's UNHOLY have parted ways with female vocalist Veera Muhli and are currently searching for a replacement. The band are composing material for their fifth full-length album and have reportedly been in contact with a 'famous label' about a possible record contract. More news as it develops.

Victory Records, ESP Guitars, and SNAPCASE will be teaming up along the Raid The Nation tour (featuring SNAPCASE, PAPA ROACH, and ALIEN ANT FARM, April 1 - April 13) to give away an autographed ESP LTD Viper 300 guitar, which holds a retail value of $769.00. More details will be available shortly.

Legendary drummer Carmine Appice (i.e. OZZY, BLUE MURDER, etc.) will be performing at La Valee in Studio City, Calfornia on April 4th and 5th accompanied by bassist Jimmy Haslip (YELLOW JACKETS / GINO VANELLI),guitarist Steve Fister (LITA FORD, STEPPENWOLF),vocalist Francesca Vocals ('sounding like Aretha or Janis', says Appice),and keyboardist Hans Zacmullen (GLENN HUGHES, JOEY HEREDIA). According to Carmine, the band will play 'all the songs I am noted for—'Do Ya Think I'm Sexy', 'Young Turks' (songs I wrote and played with ROD STEWART),'People Get Ready' (FUDGE and ROD-JEFF BECK),'You Keep Me Hangin' On' (VANILLA FUDGE),'Superstition' (BECK, BOGERT-APPICE),and 'Home Street Home' (KING KOBRA).' We play all my hits rock/jazz/reggae-style, plus songs from my new jazz rock CD.'

KISS' Gene Simmons recently did an interview with the Australian X-Press magazine, and in a true-to-form fashion, he addressed directly the many issues currently on the lips of all KISS fans worldwide--the absence of Peter Criss from the current batch of live dates and the group's plans for the final Farewell Tour shows. Here are some of the highlights of the interview:

...

On Peter Criss:

'Peter Criss was a member of the family [before] and will be tomorrow. And certainly is today. He's not with us on the Australian tour, unfortunately. My opinion is that Peter listened to the wrong advice. My guess is somebody told him, 'Ask for the moon, they can't go without you.' Well, we went to Australia in '80 without Peter and then in '95, and here we are again. Would it have been great to come back with Peter? Yeah.'

...

On being accused by KISS fans of being greedy, thus causing Peter's absence:

'Think about it: When you go into a supermarket and you see a mother raising her voice towards her child, the first thing you want to do is protect the child. But you don't know what that child's done or whether the mother's in the right or in the wrong. So from the outside it looks like somebody's a victim and somebody else took advantage. The unfortunate thing is that people don't know the specifics, so I'm here to tell you there are no bad guys and no good guys.'

...

On the upcoming 'final' show:

'Oh, I think it's gonna break my heart. It'll be that bittersweet thing. The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat. The roar of the greasepaint and the smell of the crowd is really what it's about. Because even though we've run a marathon race, and even though the finish line is right ahead of us and there's nobody even close, we're gonna win. We're gonna be the winners. Through the race, in the beginning other people outran us, but it didn't matter. We ran our own race, didn't look over our shoulders to see who was coming up behind us, didn't care if somebody passed us by for a short time. We knew we were gonna win the marathon. When you finally win there's an emotional release. You're glad that you've won and along the way it's a little sad, 'cause all things - even the good things ­ must come to an end.

...

You can read the interview in its entirety here.

MANOWAR will be holding a web chat via their official German site, http://www.manowar-germany.de, on March 31 at 19.00 CET / 1:00 PM EST.

CANNIBAL CORPSE guitarist Jack Owen 'will be waxing poetically' about the upcoming Spring Neck Break Tour via an online chat today, Thursday March 22nd at 6pm at UsaToday.com. Here is the direct link.

......